Elon musk children

Elon Musk

1971-present

Elon Musk News: Entrepreneur Tapped to Co-Lead DOGE Effort Under President Donald Trump

Elon Musk supported Donald Trump throughout his 2024 presidential campaign, and soon, the Republican president-elect will count 53-year-old Musk among his advisors. Trump announced on November 12 he selected the Tesla Motors founder to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, a new advisory panel under Trump’s incoming administration, with former presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy.

According to Trump, the body will focus on regulating government spending through the restructure of federal agencies and by cutting excess regulations. “I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans,” Trump shared in a statement.

The entity’s name is something of a misnomer as it will be an advisory group, not a true department. An act of Congress is required to create an official government agency. However, the department’s corresponding acronym, DOGE, is an apparent reference to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which was initially created as a joke but gained relevancy after Musk’s endorsement.

“We finally have a mandate to delete the mountain of choking regulations that do not serve the greater good,” Musk posted on his social media site, X.

Who Is Elon Musk?

Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, among other companies. Their success has propelled him to become the richest person in the world, with a net worth greater than $450 billion. The South African–born entrepreneur started his first businesses in the 1990s: an online city guide called Zip2 and a digital payment company named , which later became PayPal. Musk, who became an American citizen in 2002, then moved into the transportation industry via his most recognizable companies. He diversified his holdings in 2022 by purchasing Twitter, which he renamed X. A vehement supporter of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Musk will co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, a new advisory group, under Trump’s second administration. Beyond his professional life, Musk is a father to 12 kids.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Elon Reeve Musk
BORN: June 28, 1971
BIRTHPLACE: Pretoria, South Africa
SPOUSES: Justine Wilson (2000-2008) and Talulah Riley (2010-12; 2013-16)
CHILDREN: Nevada, Vivian, Griffin, Kai, Saxon, Damian, X Æ A-Xii, Strider, Azure, Exa, Techno, and an infant
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer

Where Is Elon Musk From?

Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. His mother, Maye Musk, is a Canadian model and the oldest woman to star in a CoverGirl campaign. When Elon was growing up, she worked five jobs at one point to support her family. Elon’s father, Errol Musk, is a wealthy South African engineer.

Dive Deeper

Elon spent his early childhood with his brother, Kimbal, and sister, Tosca, in South Africa. His parents divorced when he was 10.

Around this time, Musk developed an interest in computers and taught himself how to program. When he was 12 years old, Musk developed his own game called Blastar that he sold for $500. He was often so lost in his daydreams about inventions that his parents and doctors ordered a test to check his hearing.

The short, introverted, and bookish child was bullied until he was 15. By that point, he went through a growth spurt and learned how to defend himself with karate and wrestling. He has continued to practice martial arts as an adult.

At age 17, in 1988, Elon moved to Canada against his parents’ wishes to attend university and avoid mandatory service in the South African military. He obtained his Canadian citizenship that year, in part because he felt it would be easier to obtain U.S. citizenship via that path. Elon moved to the United States a few years later and officially became an American citizen in 2002.

“I came to North America because I felt this was where there was opportunity to do great things in technology,” he said in 2013.

More Tech Innovators

Education

Musk’s move to Canada coincided with his enrollment in Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He studied there for two years before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He graduated five years later with bachelor’s degrees in economics and physics.

Musk then headed to Stanford University to pursue a doctorate in energy physics. However, his relocation to California was timed perfectly with the internet boom, and he dropped out of Stanford after just two days in favor of joining the rising tech wave.

Companies: SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter, and More

Now one of his most recognizable entities, SpaceX was the third company Elon Musk founded.

Musk launched his first company while he was still in college. Today, he leads several businesses, including SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and social media site X (previously Twitter). His current and past ventures include:

The soon-to-be serial entrepreneur launched his first company, Zip2 Corporation, in 1995 with his brother, Kimbal. An online city guide, Zip2 was soon providing content for the new websites of The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. In 1999, a division of Compaq Computer Corporation bought Zip2 for $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options.

The Musk brothers immediately used the money from Zip2’s sale to found , an online financial services and payments company. The following year, in 2000, merged with a similar company businessman Peter Thiel had founded. Elon briefly served as CEO before being pushed out. Thiel assumed leadership and renamed the company PayPal.

Musk founded his third company—Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX—in 2002 with the intention of building spacecraft for commercial space travel. A key tenet of the Texas-based company and its research has been improving the sustainability of spacecraft in an effort to save costs on space travel. According to SpaceX, its Falcon 9 is the first orbital class rocket capable of reflight. It can be reused more than 10 times, with decreased maintenance between flights. Elsewhere, the company recently completed a test flight in which its first-stage booster returned to the launchpad shortly following takeoff.

SpaceX was well established by 2008 when NASA awarded the company the contract to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station in a move to replace the U.S. government’s own space shuttle missions. Plans for SpaceX to takeover future astronaut transport were also drawn up.

On May 22, 2012, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket into space with an unmanned Dragon capsule. The Dragon was sent to the ISS with 1,000 pounds of supplies for the astronauts stationed there, marking the first time a private company had sent a spacecraft to the space station. “I feel very lucky,” Musk said about the launch. “For us, it’s like winning the Super Bowl.”

SpaceX has since made more than 20 cargo deliveries to the ISS. Its Falcon 9 rockets have also carried satellites into orbit, including one designed to observe the sun’s extreme emissions that affect power grids and communications systems on Earth. Many satellites are part of the company’s Starlink internet service.

Another historic milestone arrived on May 30, 2020, when two NASA astronauts aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on a Falcon 9 rocket. It was the first time an American crew launched from U.S. soil in a commercially built American spacecraft to go to the ISS. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called the achievement an “important step on our path to expand human exploration to the Moon and Mars.”

Beyond these missions, SpaceX has continued to build out its fleet of rockets and spacecraft. Newer iterations of the Falcon 9 have been developed over the years. The company also now has a Falcon Heavy rocket, armed with three Falcon 9 engine cores, that’s designed to carry immense payloads into orbit and potentially serve as a vehicle for deep space missions.

An even bigger engineering project began around 2016. The BFR, an acronym for Big Falcon Rocket or Big F––ing Rocket, was initially conceived as 42-engine behemoth topped by a spaceship capable of carrying at least 100 people. A next-generation BFR was introduced in 2019 with the name Starship. The current design includes a Starship spacecraft and a Super Heavy rocket outfitted with 33 Raptor engines. Test flights began in April 2023.

Starlink, a division of SpaceX, is a satellite network that has made broadband internet service more accessible in rural areas and has boosted competition in heavily populated markets that are typically dominated by one or two providers.

After receiving permission from the U.S. government to launch a fleet of satellites into low orbit in late March 2018, SpaceX launched the first batch of 60 satellites in May 2019. Another payload of 60 satellites followed that November. According to data from the the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics from July 2024, Starlink is now responsible for about 60 percent of the more than 10,000 active satellites in orbit. The company has short-term plans to increase its total to more than 12,000.

The appearance of these bright orbiters in the night sky has worried some astronomers who feel a proliferation of satellites increases the difficulty of studying distant objects in space. Even so, Starlink’s impact on Earth is apparent. In May 2024, Musk shared that more than 3 million customers in 99 countries rely on the internet provider. Its materials have also helped the Ukrainian military collect intelligence and coordinate drone attacks during its ongoing war with Russia.

Musk is the cofounder, CEO, and product architect at Tesla Motors, a company formed in 2003 that is dedicated to producing affordable, mass-market electric cars as well as battery products and solar roofs. Musk oversees all product development, engineering, and design of the Texas-based company’s products.

In the two-plus decades since its formation, Tesla has unveiled a series of electric vehicles at multiple price points, including some with self-driving capabilities. The first was the Roadster, a sports car launched in 2008 with a travel range of nearly 250 miles between charges of its lithium-ion battery. It’s capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds. The Tesla lineup now includes the Model S and the more affordable Model 3 sedans, the Model X and Model Y crossover SUVs, and the Cybertruck. Boasting a 265-mile range, the first-generation Model S was named the 2013 Car of the Year by MotorTrend. (Editor’s note: Like Biography, MotorTrend is owned by Hearst Magazines.)

By 2019, Tesla was responsible or about 75 percent of electric vehicle sales in the United States, but its share dipped to as little as 49 percent by the second quarter of 2024. This is partly due to repeated production issues, safety concerns, and company downsizing.

It took four years for the Model S to enter production after it was first announced in August 2008. The Model 3 was delayed three times before arriving to market in early 2019, and its production problems ultimately prompted Musk to personally oversee engineering efforts at Tesla. Similarly, the Cybertruck was first introduced in November 2019. When the electric pickup finally became available in November 2023, the cost had increased around $21,000.

Delays haven’t been the only issue to plague the Cybertruck, whose “cyberpunk” style was inspired by the movies Blade Runner and The Spy Who Loved Me. The truck wasn’t crash-tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, and concerns rose about the lack of crush zones on the vehicle body. This means passengers might feel higher impacts in the event of an accident. In August 2024, two separate incidents occurred in Texas in which the vehicles caught fire—one of which killed the driver. As of November 2024, Tesla has initiated six recalls for the Cybertruck, and the vehicle is the subject of at least four NHTSA investigations into possible safety defects.

Amid these challenges, Tesla has navigated several significant layoffs. In 2018, Musk announced 9 percent of its workforce would be let go. The company has experienced similar downsizing in more recent years, reportedly losing as much as 14 percent of its workforce in 2024 alone.

Tesla continues working on the Semi, a new commercial truck, and the second-generation Roadster that the company promises to be the fastest-accelerating production car with a 0-to-60 time of 1.9 seconds. Both projects were unveiled in November 2017 and are still not on the market as of December 2024.

Solar panel manufacturer SolarCity, now a part of Tesla Motors, was founded by two of Musk’s cousins in 2006. Musk invested in the company and served as its board chairman. In 2016, in his continuing effort to promote and advance sustainable energy and products for a wider consumer base, Musk announced Tesla would buy SolarCity for $2.6 billion in an all-stock deal.

The acquisition, completed in November 2016, placed Musk in hot water when some Tesla shareholders filed a lawsuit alleging the deal was unfair and claiming Musk had acted in his own interest, not Tesla’s. A Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled in favor of Musk in 2022, determining he hadn’t acted outside his fiduciary duty. That decision was upheld by the state supreme court in June 2023.

In January 2017, Musk launched The Boring Company that’s devoted to boring and building tunnels as a way to reduce street traffic. Like many of his other companies, its headquarters are in Texas.

Musk began with a test dig on SpaceX property in Los Angeles. In late October 2017, Musk posted the first photo of his company’s progress to his Instagram page. He said the 500-foot tunnel, which would generally run parallel to Interstate 405, would reach a length of two miles in approximately four months.

In May 2019, the company, now known as TBC, landed a $48.7 million contract from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to build an underground Loop system to shuttle people around the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Loop opened in April 2021 and has transported more than 1.5 million visitors.

That project came after an ultimately unsuccessful effort to build and operate a high-speed rail line in Chicago. After then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked for proposals in November 2017 for rail lines between O’Hare Airport and downtown Chicago that would take 20 minutes or less, Musk tweeted that he was all-in on the competition with The Boring Company. In summer 2018, Musk announced he would cover the estimated $1 billion needed to dig the 17-mile tunnel. However, in late 2019, he tweeted TBC would focus on completing the commercial tunnel in Las Vegas before turning to other projects.

In a one-off stunt, Musk announced The Boring Company would make flamethrowers about a year into its founding. After sharing that they were going on sale for $500 apiece in late January 2018, he claimed to have sold 10,000 of them within a day.

In January 2022, Musk began investing in social media site Twitter. Within two months, he became the company’s largest shareholder with a stake of more than 9 percent.

On April 15, Musk made an offer to purchase Twitter outright, valuing the company at around $43 billion according to a securities filing. “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.” Musk said. “Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”

Despite the company’s initial acceptance, a months-long dispute over the sale ensued during which Musk threatened to terminate the deal given the prevalence of bots and fake accounts on the platform. Finally in October 2022, Musk officially bought Twitter and became the social media company’s CEO.

The transition drew backlash, as Twitter announced early that November it had begun layoffs that would affect roughly half of its 7,500-person workforce. Musk additionally introduced a subscription-based verification service, which had previously been awarded to notable accounts for free as a form of authentication.

In May 2024, Musk appointed Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO, and a few weeks later in July, the site rebranded as X and shed its bird-themed logo. The company is based in Bastrop, Texas.

While the site now serves as one of Musk’s primary communication outlets, its value has steeply declined since the purchase. Per CNN, the investment company Fidelity estimated the value of X had dropped 80 percent by October 2024. At least 30 lawsuits have been filed against X for refusal to pay former employees and vendors, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Musk has pursued an interest in artificial intelligence initially by cofounding the nonprofit OpenAI. The research company launched in late 2015 with the stated mission of advancing digital intelligence to benefit humanity. Two years later, Musk left the company and his post as co-chair following an internal dispute, which led to Sam Altman becoming CEO. OpenAI has since launched the popular chat software ChatGPT, which went live in 2022.

In July 2023, Musk announced the formation of xAI. Now headquartered in San Francisco, the company’s mission is to “advance our collective understanding of the universe” through artificial intelligence programs. The xAI Grok model was introduced to premium users on X starting that December. In May 2024, the AI startup announced it had attracted $6 billion in investments.

In August 2024, Musk sued the now-rival OpenAI, alleging the company betrayed its founding purpose of benefitting the public good in favor of becoming a for-profit business. The ongoing case went to federal court later in December.

Inventions

Through SpaceX and Tesla, Musk has achieved notable advancements in sustainable space exploration as well as driverless transportation with the research and launch of Full Self-Driving software. Musk has brought this pioneering spirit to other ventures but with mixed results. Among the inventions Musk has spent the most time and money to research are a new high-speed public transportation system and biological software connectivity.

Hyperloop

In August 2013, Musk released a concept for a new form of transportation called the “Hyperloop” that would would propel riders in pods through a network of low-pressure tubes at speeds reaching more than 700 mph. He proposed the transit system be built between San Francisco and Los Angeles, an endeavor that the inventor noted could take from seven to 10 years to be built and ready for use. He suggested the Hyperloop run on renewable energy.

Did You Know?

Passing off the concept to fellow entrepreneurs, a startup formed to pursue the Hyperloop in 2014. For a time, it was owned by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, but by December 2023, Bloomberg reported the company began to sell off its assets and lay off remaining employees.

Neuralink

In 2017, it was reported that Musk was backing a venture called Neuralink, which intended to create devices to be implanted in the human brain and help people merge with software. Its devices consist of a microscopic chip that connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone or computer.

Concerns over the project arose in 2023, when veterinary records reportedly showed that monkeys receiving the implant in tests suffered “debilitating heath defects” including paralysis and brain swelling. Musk downplayed any risks, saying that only “terminal” monkeys received the implant and that none had died from the experiments. In January 2024, Neuralink completed its first implant in a human subject, with Musk saying the results showed promise.

Net Worth

Musk is the richest person in the world, a title he has held at various points since early 2021. He regularly swaps spots with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and French businessman Bernard Arnault, who is the founder and CEO of luxury goods conglomerate LVMH.

According to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List, Musk is worth $465 billion as of December 18, 2024. Bloomberg’s estimate is slightly higher, totaling Musk’s fortune at around $468 billion. Because much of his net worth is tied up in stock, Musk’s wealth is highly variable.

Ex-Wives and Children

Although Musk is currently single, he has been married three times to two women and has 11 living children. His firstborn died as an infant.

Ex-Wife Justine Wilson

In 2000, the entrepreneur wed Justine Wilson. They met as students at Queen’s University.

In 2002, their first son, Nevada, died at 10 weeks old from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The loss didn’t prevent them from growing their family later on. Elon and Justine welcomed twins, Griffin and Vivian, in 2004 followed by triplets—Kai, Saxon, and Damian—in two years later. All five children were conceived through in vitro fertilization.

Vivian is transgender and legally changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson in 2022. She doesn’t wish to be associated with Elon in any way. In a 2024 interview with NBC News, she called her father “uncaring and narcissistic” and said he was cruel to her as a child for being queer.

Ultimately, Elon and Justine’s marriage broke down. Their contentious divorce was finalized in 2008.

Ex-Wife Talulah Riley

Elon Musk and actor Talulah Riley have been married and divorced twice.

Musk met actor Talulah Riley after his first marriage collapsed. Today, she is best known for her roles in the 2005 movie Pride & Prejudice and the TV show Westworld.

Musk and Riley married in 2010 but split by 2012. They decided to marry again in 2013, but their relationship ultimately ended in a second divorce in 2016.

Relationship with Amber Heard

Musk reportedly began dating actor Amber Heard in 2016 after finalizing his second divorce with Riley and following Heard’s divorce from actor Johnny Depp. Their busy schedules caused Musk and Heard to break up in August 2017. The couple got back together in January 2018 and split again one month later.

Relationship with Grimes

Elon Musk and Grimes attend the Met Gala in May 2018.

In May 2018, Musk began dating musician Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher. That month, Grimes announced she had changed her name to “c,” the symbol for the speed of light, reportedly at the encouragement of Musk. Fans criticized the feminist performer for dating a billionaire whose company had been described as a “predator zone” amid accusations of sexual harassment.

However, the couple discussed their love for one another in a March 2019 feature in theWall Street Journal Magazine. Musk told the Journal, “I love c’s wild fae artistic creativity and hyper-intense work ethic.”

Grimes gave birth to their first son in early May 2020, with Musk announcing they named the boy X Æ A-12. The name was partly inspired by the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft. Later in the month, after it was reported that the State of California wouldn’t accept a name with a number, the couple said they were changing their son’s name to X Æ A-Xii.

Musk and Grimes welcomed their second child, a daughter named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk, in December 2021. The child was delivered via a surrogate. In September 2023, journalist Walter Isaacson revealed in his biography about Musk that Grimes and Musk had a third child, a son named Techno Mechanicus and nicknamed “Tau.”

Grimes announced in March 2022 that she and Musk had broken up.

Kids with Shivon Zilis

During his relationship with Grimes, Musk quietly welcomed two children, a son named Strider and a daughter named Azure, with Shivon Zilis in November 2021. Zilis is the project director of his Neuralink company. Musk confirmed the couple had a third child together in June 2024; the child’s name and sex haven’t been revealed.

The New York Times reports Zilis and the three kids live on a compound in Austin, Texas, that Musk helped purchase. The property includes two mansions and is close to a third home Musk regularly stays at when he’s in town. A day after the Times article was published, the entrepreneur told Page Six he didn’t own and isn’t building such a compound.

Advisor to Donald Trump

After Donald Trump was elected U.S. president in 2016, Musk found himself on common ground with the incoming commander-in-chief and his advisers as Trump announced plans to pursue massive infrastructure developments. That December, Musk was named to the president-elect’s Strategy and Policy Forum. Further solidifying their collaboration, he joined Trump’s Manufacturing Jobs Initiative in January 2017.

While sometimes at odds with the president’s controversial measures, such as a ban on immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, Musk defended his involvement with the new administration. “My goals,” he tweeted in early 2017, “are to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy and to help make humanity a multi-planet civilization, a consequence of which will be the creating of hundreds of thousands of jobs and a more inspiring future for all.”

Following Trump’s announcement in June 2017 that he was withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord, Musk stepped down from his advisory roles.

Elon Musk, who had served as an advisor in President Donald Trump’s first administration, took an active role in the Republican candidate’s 2024 reelection campaign.

Despite their uneven relationship during Trump’s first administration, Musk endorsed the Republican nominee for president in the 2024 election against Vice President Kamala Harris. Following an attempted assassination of Trump at a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, Musk said he would appear with Trump for another rally at the same location in October.

Later that month, Musk announced he would randomly give away $1 million dollars each day to a person who signed a petition from his political action committee supporting the Constitution as part of an effort to register voters who might support Trump. The giveaway became the subject of a lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleging it could improperly influence the November 5 election, but Musk’s lawyers argued that recipients were not actually chosen randomly, and a judge allowed the prizes to continue.

Following his win, Trump announced he plans to appoint Musk to co-lead a new task force called the Department of Government Efficiency that will work to cut unnecessary federal spending. According to reports, Musk is also working directly with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago Club residence in Florida during the transition process. “Elon Musk and President Trump are great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again. Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader, and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency,” a transition team spokesperson said.

2018 SEC Investigation

Prior to his purchase of the site, Twitter was the genesis of a financial scandal involving Musk. On August 7, 2018, Musk dropped a bombshell via a tweet: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” The announcement opened the door for legal action against the company and its founder, as the SEC began inquiring about whether Musk had indeed secured the funding as claimed. Several investors filed lawsuits on the grounds that Musk was looking to manipulate stock prices and ambush short sellers with his tweet.

Musk’s tweet initially sent Tesla stock spiking, before it closed the day up 11 percent. The CEO followed up with a letter on the company blog, calling the move to go private “the best path forward.” He promised to retain his stake in the company and added that he would create a special fund to help all current investors remain on board.

Six days later, Musk sought to clarify his position with a statement in which he pointed to discussions with the managing director of the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund as the source of his “funding secured” declaration. He later tweeted that he was working on a proposal to take Tesla private with Goldman Sachs and Silver Lake as financial advisers.

On August 24, one day after meeting with the board, Musk announced that he had reversed course and wouldn’t be taking the company private. Among his reasons, he cited the preference of most directors to keep Tesla public, as well as the difficulty of retaining some of the large shareholders who were prohibited from investing in a private company.

On September 29, 2018, it was announced that Musk would pay a $20 million fine and step down as chairman of Tesla’s board for three years as part of an agreement with the SEC.

Personal Life: Religion, Asperger’s Syndrome, and More

Beyond his work and family lives, Musk is an avid video game player. Biographer Walter Isaacson, who released an authorized account of Musk’s life in 2023, even classified the hobby as an “addiction.” He is a big fan of Elden Ring, which he previously called “the most beautiful art I’ve ever seen.”

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

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Isaacson’s biography about Musk, which was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, is currently in the process of becoming a biopic. Director Darren Aronofsky is attached to the movie. “Glad Darren is doing it,” Musk shared on social media after news about the project broke in late 2023. “He is one of the best.”

Where Does Elon Musk Live?

In May 2020, Musk claimed in a series of social media posts he planned to sell nearly all of his physical possessions. According to biographer Walter Isaacson, this eventually spurred Musk to sell multiple properties and make a $50,000 rental home in Boca Chica, Texas, his primary residence. The house is located near SpaceX’s development and testing site.

Asperger’s Syndrome

In May 2021, Musk revealed while hosting an episode of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live that he has Asperger’s syndrome, a developmental disorder that can cause difficulty with socialization and communication as well as obsessive interest in very specific topics. He elaborated further about his experience growing up with the condition a year later.

“I would just tend to take things very literally… but then that turned out to be wrong—[people were not] simply saying exactly what they mean, there’s all sorts of other things that are meant, and [it] took me a while to figure that out,” Musk explained at the TED2022 conference.

Religion and Political Views

Although long considered an atheist, Musk said in 2024 he considers himself a “cultural Christian” and believes in the teachings of Jesus Christ—even though he might not follow all tenets of the faith. “I do believe that the teachings of Jesus are good and wise,” he said in an interview with psychologist and podcast host Jordan Peterson.

This notable shift has coincided with Musk’s growing support of conservative political causes. He criticized lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has used social media to amplify his beliefs related to free speech. According to PBS, he has shared memes and sometimes misinformation on X about topics such as illegal immigration, alleged U.S. election fraud, and transgender policies.

In broader terms, the boundless potential of space exploration and the preservation of the future of the human race have become the cornerstones of Musk’s abiding interests, and toward these, he has founded the Musk Foundation, which is dedicated to space exploration and the discovery of renewable and clean energy sources.

In October 2019, Musk pledged to donate $1 million to the #TeamTrees campaign, which aims to plant 20 million trees around the world by 2020. He even changed his Twitter name to Treelon for the occasion.

Musk has also been vocal about his concerns over a looming world population collapse caused by lower birth rates, calling it a “bigger risk to civilization than global warming.” However, many demographers have disagreed with his assessment.

Quotes

I’m very pro-environment, but let’s figure out how to do it better and not jump through a dozen hoops to achieve what is obvious in the first place.
Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.

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David sedaris author biography David Raymond Sedaris (/ s ɪ ˈ d ɛər ɪ s / sih-DAIR-iss; born December 26, 1956) [1] [2] is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay "Santaland Diaries".